Showcase
Kirill
Silverlight is an exciting new web technology from Microsoft. It is designed to bring a new level of rich, interactive media experience to websites, and has been described by some as a 'Flash Killer'.
The latest version, Silverlight 2 was released to the public in the middle of October 2008. As part of the promotional drive to encourage uptake of the technology MSN UK decided to commission an exciting new viral video experience that showcased the power of Silverlight in a prominent location on the MSN UK portal.
Endemol Television, makers of Big Brother and Deal or no Deal, shot a series of short episodes to a story centred around a mysterious character known only as 'Kirill', played by British character actor David Schofield (Pirates of the Carribbean, Gladiator). A viral marketing campaign was created using blogs and other content scattered about the web to draw the curious in.
Governor Technology was brought in to create the Silverlight application at the centre of the whole experience. We were chosen because of our long standing relationship as a supplier of development services to Microsoft and proven experience in Silverlight work, something that was in short supply even inside Microsoft.
In collaboration with an MSN designer we created a brand new application interface including a video player, with a wide range of animated effects showing off the full power of Silverlight, including its exciting 'deep zoom' feature.
The brief was simple - to create a video experience that had never been seen on the web before, and that would provoke a 'Wow' response from visitors.
However it was not all just about looks and cool animation. The application was being sponsored by several MSN clients - and this meant we also had to integrate sophisticated user tracking and page counting mechanisms into it - not easy when the whole concept of a 'page' doesn't really exist in Silverlight.
Plus there was an administrative 'back end' that allows MSN editors to regularly update the content - adding new episodes and information about characters as they appear, and updating blog stories.
The Kirill story has proved a great success and you can see it all here: http://kirill.uk.msn.com/
